Asian Drama Lovers

The Illustration of a Gumiho

Gumiho in English means “nine-tailed fox”. A lot of country in Asia has this kind of creature like Japan with its Kyubi no Kitsune and China with Huli Jing. Gumiho itself is a creature that comes from Korea. According to both Donga Color World Encyclopedia and the Dusan Great World Encyclopedia, a Gumiho is a fox with nine tails that commonly appears in Korea’s oral tales. This creature while reaching the age of one thousand years, can transform into a beautiful woman and they will seduce men. A lot of those legendary tales also can be found in the encyclopedic Compendium of Korean Oral Literature.

Most of the tale tells a story about Gumiho that is a woman, but there’s also one where the Gumiho is a young man. He tries to trick the maiden into marrying him. From all of this story, we get the description that Gumiho has the age of thousand of years but their appearance resembles of a young handsome man or a beautiful lady. In addition, it has a superpower ability that far surpassed that of a human. This creature also believed to be an evil creature who likes to eat the liver or heart of its victims. But aside from its appearance, Gumiho still has something fox-like about it, so that even if its countenance changes, its nature does not.

The dramas about Gumiho

So that is a little bit tale of the nine tails fox. But the question is, why is it that there's a lot of interest around this scary creature? It's a natural thing that human likes to imagine things that are beyond what's known to them. This is not an exception. Besides the mystery around it, let's imagine if the life of a Gumiho does not like what the tale tells us. How if they are kind creatures that can't harm human? At least not an innocent human. Or what if it fells madly in love with an ordinary human, hence the forbidden story arose. And it goes on and on and on, and finally, we have the drama about it!

Next, how about we dig into some of the dramas that revolved around this creature? Here are some of it.

Broadcasted on national TV SBS, this drama was very popular and had the highest rating of 21.3%. It tells a story about a university student named Cha Dae Woong (Lee Seung Gi) who accidentally releases a Gumiho and while running away from her, injured himself. The Gumiho (Shin Min Ah) then save him and as an exchange, want him to teach her how to act like a human. The story unfolds from there when they slowly falling for each other.

There's some tale material that the writer used in this drama, like when Cha Dae Woong is always afraid the Gumiho will eat his liver or the Gumiho who has the super ability, but there's also a male Gumiho in this story. The writer of this story is Hong Sisters that famous for many fantasy drama, and some of their dramas became a hit just like what happened with this drama. But the romance part of the story was from a decade ago so it had the generic arrogant male who finally falls madly in love with the female lead who is always there for him.

Trailer

This drama also has another name Kang Chi The Beginning and broadcasted on national TV station MBC. It's not just mainly focus on the romance part but also on Kang Chi's journey to be a human, despite his origin. Another unique imagination of the tale of Gumiho, this drama also revolved around martial arts topic. Meanwhile, Lee Seung Gi who has already played many fantasy drama about Gumiho also nailed this character.

Trailer

Ended just a few months ago, this popular drama also tells a story about Gumiho. But aside from that, this drama also has many other immortal creatures. With a mixture of mystery, action and fantasy, this drama captured the highest rating of 5.8% despite just broadcasted on a table station, tvN. Lee Yun (Lee Dong Wook) is once the guardian of the Baekdu daegan mountain range, now a legendary Gumiho who lives with human. Nam Ji Ah (Jo Bo Ah) is a TV producer who specializes in the supernatural topic. Their fate intertwined and turns out they have a tragic past that involved each other.

The world of this Gumiho story not just about this creature, but also about God, the afterlife, and some local legend in the country. It mixes together to makes this complicated romance story of a Gumiho and a human. Lee Dong Wook and Jo Bo Ah played their part perfectly and makes the drama more enjoyable. With some brotherhood story between Lee Yun and Lee Rang (Kim Bum) makes this drama more exciting.

Watch it on Netflix

The newest edition for the Gumiho stories. Still ongoing, this drama has 4 episodes as of this article posted, and we will know about the full story in the next couple of weeks. Like the previous drama, this drama also broadcasts on cable station tvN and will have a total of 16 episodes. This is the first iQiyi original drama from Korea, and the international broadcast for this drama is also iQiyi.

Based on a webcomic "Gan Ddeoreojineun Donggeo" by Na which was published from August 2017 to November 2020 via Naver. It tells a story of a male Gumiho Shin Woo Yeo (Jang Ki Yong) who has lived for hundreds of years and doing a monotonous life, having his fox beads eaten away by a college student named Lee Dam (Hyeri). To fix this problem, they have to live together to solve this problem.

Watch it on iQiyi

Haven't seen it all? Maybe this is the perfect time to watch those dramas! Which one is your favourite? Write down on the comment section below and feel free to recommend other drama about Gumiho that you know! See you in the next post.

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